October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

The introduction of hundreds of fresh, locally nurtured franchise concepts emerging within Dubai and the Gulf States may set the stage for a revolution in nouveau-consumerism.

So, what are the key factors driving this movement. First, the places to park new concepts; the current, ever-expanding construction phases in Dubai, UAE, GCC and all over Asia, provide a highly fertile ground for such concepts to nestle in; a home in the newly designed and creatively appointed decors, so that the cute new concepts with the most lavish and appealing ideas would flourish. The combination of creative concepts blended with thousands of newly built access with improved consumer interaction is a very positive sign.

Second, the nouveau-consumerism; the Middle Eastern consumer at large is becoming increasingly fussy and demanding high quality, better services, value and assurances while seeking emotional alliances with brand acceptance and responding to name identity recognition. The smarter and more difficult the customers, the better, resulting in best offerings with more sensible high-profile brand identities.

Third, a global tidal wave of new ideas; the current globalisation of the best original ideas parked under globally protected name identities, is on the march. All over the world, the race for syndicated/franchised ideas is on at full speed. The question is either whether a country simply gets washed over, or takes a stand with innovative and home-grown counter offerings.
Lastly, the new-name-economy; the realisation by business players to carve out a 100 per cent proprietary, Five-Star Standard brand name identity with global ownership has finally come to reality.

Today, it is necessary to play the expansion game under global standards of trademark protection, armed with a deeper understanding of international rules of image marketing as the new standard. The days of common promotional logo-driven branding are numbered.

Furthermore, there are also major leadership challenges issues in order to harness the advance level of franchisation in Gulf countries for a maximum impact.

First, the creation of sophisticated platforms; to incubate local and original franchise-able ideas, the countries need good practical laws to service the provider and protect the buyers of such projects, and systems to educate and train large groups of people to service this arena. This demands creating institutional bodies ranging from governments, private organisations, associations and universities to all join hands in taking this revolution head-on with a game plan; and the readiness to understand this global phenomenon of the new-name-economy, where a country’s wealth is also measured by the power of their global brands and their outreach over competing countries. Second, acquiring a deeper understanding; global image repositioning issues are becoming more and more critical, slowly shifting the western brands powers to the emergence of newly-created Asian brands with traditions and lifestyles in mind, also giving Dubai and Gulf countries an opportunity to join the race, and take the quantum for new franchise-able identities.

Third, localisation; as an owner-operated-business-occupational activity, there is nothing better than the franchise model. The real success of this concept came when managers became owners, resulting in a high level of loyalty, service and performance which fuelled quality control and growth.

Today, in countries all over GCC, finding great occupational activity for the younger population, and to offer them a platform for turnkey businesses is one of the best long-term strategies for the future. To encourage an owner-operated model would involve family type business at the grassroots level and also create a safer environment to carry the business forward and expand into more outlets or other similar models.

Overall, the consumers, franchisee and franchisors are all winners. The real loss is for those young or old dynamic and entrepreneurial businesses that have developed great products and services over time but despite all the ingredients, still suffer from a lack of the image and marketing umbrella of global name identity. This is the bridge that one has to cross in order to take that quantum leap. Historically, the US led the franchise revolution now adopted worldwide creating great legends. Today, in the West with over 100,000 different franchise offerings and turning over a trillion dollar in businesses, this model of commerce is spreading its wings fast in GCC and Asia. For example, tomorrow’s India alone would easily absorb some tens of thousands of big and small new franchise ideas; locally developed, locally nurtured to give them easy access to park themselves anywhere in Asia or around the world.

GCC too, is on its way to have hundreds of its own brand new local ideas, designed to deal with local service issues, culture and sensitivities to its taste, style or religious needs. There can easily be thousands of outlets to service its population with dramatic shifts in demographics at play. The local original ideas from GCC too can be further expanded to Asia, MENA and Europe etc.

To go forward, the players must create the best value propositions, create the best service models but most important, acquire an absolute 100 per cent ownership of brand name identity.